These Days

“Well have you told him yet?” Erin asked, standing in front of her mirror holding up her high wasted pink skirt.

“No! How am I supposed to tell my boyfriend we’re having a baby? Especially when I’m not even in the same state as him? That’s just bad form.” Violet was sitting with her legs crossed on Matt’s mother’s counter. They were in New York due to Matt’s deluded logic that if she went to an OBGYN in Pittsburgh they would sell the information that she was pregnant to a tabloid. Violet thought that was far-fetched but didn’t mind the Weinstein’s huge house in Westchester.

“You tell him like this, ‘Geno, we’re having a baby.’” Erin chuckled to herself as Violet shouted a string of inappropriate words. “Do you think the pink skirt is too informal?”

“Well I don’t know,” Violet said, considerably calmer. “Where is Max taking you?”

“I don’t know!” Erin proclaimed, exasperated. She’d given into Max. Max called on behalf of Evgeni to get Erin to check on Violet but ended up finagling himself a date.

“Well then you should wear the purple sun dress. It’s warm enough and you can pair it with a sweater and it’s not too casual but not exactly formal. And I don’t think Max is a fan of formal on first dates, to tell you the truth.”

“How would you know that?”

“Oh, I don’t know E, I haven’t been talking to Max for almost a year and a half now so my opinion must mean scat! I think I know him pretty well, E, he’s so much fun to talk to.” Erin heard a voice, Matt’s, and then a quick argument between him and Violet. “Ugh, Matt’s sister is an OBGYN. It was the most awkward thing in the world having my best friend’s sister’s poke around in my vag only to tell me what I already knew.”

“Well I mean you peed on like twelve sticks and they were all positive. I peed on like four, and Matt peed on seven and they were all negative so it was pretty unnecessary to go to New York to get the pee sticks validated. You’re infected with man juice, no way around it.”

“Thanks for stealing my euphemism.”

“I’m going on a date with Max Talbot and I’m freaking out and all you can think about is your baby?” Erin fake gasped.

“Don’t let him get too handsy.” Violet warned before Erin hung up on her. She wished Geno was there with her but she also wished he wasn’t. But how could she tell him?

While Violet was busy with practicing on Matt how she would tell Evgeni, Erin was taking her advice and putting on the purple dress. She paced her apartment floor waiting for Max. When he finally arrived she flung open the door. He smiled at her. He was wearing jeans and a nice flannel shirt.

“Hey, let me just grab a jacket.” Erin grabbed a white American Apparel hoodie and then followed Max out to his car.

“You look nice.” He said. She smiled and thanked him. He turned on his music.

“You like Jack’s Mannequin?” Erin asked in disbelief. Max smiled and nodded.

“I like all types of music really. Rock, rap, even country.” Erin sat back comfily in her chair, thinking that maybe this date wasn’t such a bad idea after all. She was wrong.

“It sucked, Vi, I’ve never felt so horrible on a date in my whole life!”

“Walk us through it honey, walk us through it.” Violet and Matt were laying on his childhood bed with the phone on speaker eating carrots and celery, her first craving. Violet never ate healthy. It was new for her.

“So at first everything’s great and he takes me to this really homey, hole-in-the-wall and the waiters know him and he’s being so nice and I’m finding out we have stuff in common like our music taste and what TV shows and movies we like.”

“Mmhmm,” Violet said through a mouth full of carrot, “But then,”

“But then our waiter’s sister has fucked him! Like literally fucked him from every angle imaginable and you could tell. I mean, even you and Matt would’ve been able to tell!” Erin ignored Matt’s noise of indigence. “Oh shut up, you and Violet can’t even tell when someone’s flirting with you. But anyway Max is flirting with me and then this brother of the girl he’s fucked comes and says nasty things about me! To my face! And Max lets him. What the fuck! I thought he liked me!”

“Well clearly you’ve left denial town and you admit to liking him now. But E, you know he likes the ladies. Weren’t you kind of expecting it?” Violet asked.

“Violet, how would you feel if you were on a date with Evgeni and the brother of some girl he’d previously fucked walked up to Evgeni, called you trash, and told him to call his sister?” Erin asked, her voice seething with anger.

“Well hey; at least you’re not pregnant.”

“Violet!”

“Look, E, I feel bad your date didn’t go as planned, but I’m pregnant. I’m going to be a mom. That’s really scary. I have bigger problems to deal with. I think that if this was such a disaster date you should put it in your book as that and say ‘hey, at least I tried to date Max.’ But you clearly still like him, so I think you should give him another chance.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Sleep on it, then let me know what you decide.”

“But ah, Violet, help me!” Erin moaned, pulling on her hair with one hand.

“Erin,” Matt’s calm voice came through the receiver, “What was Max doing with his hands when this guy was saying all of those horrible things?”

“Holding his glass of water.”

“And what color were his knuckles?” Matt asked quietly. Erin paused and tried to remember. If her memory served her correct they had changed color.

“White, I think they were white.”

“Then you should consider giving him another chance and letting him explain.” Matt said. Erin looked at herself in the mirror and listened to her friends breathing on the other line. She bit her lip. Should she?